


A Fantasy to our Eyes.

by ultraguardians



Category: Hidden Block - Fandom, Normal Boots
Genre: Fantasy AU, Not RPF, Possibly OOC, been working on this since april.. but i don't update it as much as i would like to so oof, i love love LOVE this au. i just wish i would work on it moreee. i have so many ideas!!, may add more tags if needed, plot is not fleshed out.. i don't think that ahead haha, posting it on here so y'all can make sure i flipping update it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-05-13 08:36:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19247626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultraguardians/pseuds/ultraguardians
Summary: Potion-maker Luke Sizemore encounters a knight while working on potions late into the night. That faithful encounter possibly saves his life, as well as extends the wish for adventure.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There's two POVs in this, same scenario, different POVs.

**[Luke POV]**

I was still in my hometown, popular as a bard but mainly as a potion maker. I started to grow tired of my life, while creating potions can be quite fascinating, it’s not interesting when you do the same potions people have requested. I felt like I was burning out.

A knock on my door had alerted me that night, although I expect customers to come at any time, I never have anyone come at the latest time of the night. But… if it was a customer, I would be more than happy to help them! Afterall, my home had been quite far from the main village. I wouldn’t like to leave them hanging. 

I started to make my way over, cleaning off my hands of any leftover powder of the ingredients I had been using. As I reached out for the door’s handle, I heard more rustling outside, someone falling over, hitting the door with all their might. I jumped as my stomach sunk down, and suddenly chills flew through my body. This was going to be bad. 

More rustling, and a distant groan. My curiosity to open the door rose, at the same time I had the feeling that I was about to die due to being an idiot.. I conquered the fear arising, and like an absolute dingus, I opened the door.

I expected the worse. I hadn’t died, but what I saw was still pretty bad.

A battered up man, his hair had been a shade of brown, but it was obvious that had been mud and dirt overtaking his blonde hair. He wore of armour, but dents had ruined it all. He had been dressed as a knight…. Although.. He didn’t have a sword.

He had a staff, it had been shaped like a spoon and even the grey it shone was like of a metal substance.. The wide end of the staff had an eye. It stared at me, I felt chills go up my spine. This was very uncomfortable. 

I snapped myself out of my own thoughts, and dragged the man into my home. I would’ve put him on my couch, but the armor he wore told me that it would be quite a task. I laid him upon my rug, putting a pillow underneath his head. I then quickly searched around for a health potion.  _ ‘Please, please tell me I have one in stock.’ _ I thought to myself as my finger moved along the shelves containing the names of the potions I had in store. 

Finally, my finger landed on  _ Health and Wellness _ . As I looked up, I noticed I had a few left. Although there were different mixes, I know which one I needed. I reached out for one of the potions, the glow of green and blue shining strong from within the bottle. I knew someone had requested for one of these tomorrow… well the morning actually, but either way these didn’t take much to make. I’ll make one later. Grabbing it, I popped off the cork, the scent of mint and the ocean fluttered through the room.

I kneeled down and lifted the head of the man, and tipped the potion over the lips of the man, the liquid flowing into his mouth. He started to slightly gulp it, but it seemed to take the majority of his strength to even try to gulp it down.

Finally after a few seconds, the potion was empty. I gently laid the man’s head back down onto the pillow. I grabbed a nearby blanket, hoping that helped him get more comfortable.

The potion would take a while to take effect. So I wouldn’t expect much movement from the injured man. I decided to create another potion for my client for the morning.

\----

Hours passed and I started to grow tired. I knew I shouldn’t be awake, I knew I should go to sleep. But what if the dude woke up? How would they react to being in  _ my _ home? Even with my potion helping them heal, I’m certain they would still feel pain. That potion wasn’t a permanent solution.

I had already finished up the potion, so as time went on I didn’t have anything to distract myself with. I didn’t have the feel for a new song, I didn’t have any more potion requests. So, with that I decided to take a  _ quick  _ nap. I went to my couch, near the man, and closed my eyes. This is gonna be a quick nap, a quick.. simple… nap.

\----

A cold, metal substance touched my face.

I groaned, I wanted more sleep. I slightly opened my eyes, and someone was standing right before me.

I jumped... scared out of my mind. With that, I had gone from the couch to the floor. I then remembered what had happened last night. I relaxed, my hand laying on my forehead as I sighed. My eyes finally fully opened, the man from last night was standing there.

He… was still battered up. But now I could gaze into his eyes, the green and blue in his eyes matched the potion I had given him last night. Although the light bouncing off his broken glasses blinded the sight of his eyes, I could still see it.

He held out his hand, grinning like a dofus. I grabbed his hand, and he pulled me up from the dusty ground. With that move, we were now staring at each other, direct eye contact as no words had been able to come out from neither of us..

He coughed, putting his hands on his hips. “Uh… thank you so much for helping me.” he sheepishly put his hand behind his head, rubbing it as he looked away. 

I smiled, “Oh! It was not problem, man!” I gave him a thumbs up, hoping to ensure that it was no trouble to help another human being. “But, if you don’t mind me asking.... What exactly happened to you?”

It seemed that I had said something wrong, his eyes widened as he remembered the previous night. He nearly slapped himself as he looked around, “We need to get out of here!”

That… wasn’t the response I would’ve wanted.

I gave him a worried look, uncertain of his words. “What… What do you mean?” I certainly didn’t want to leave this village. I loved creating potions for all, and I especially loved being a bard to entertain them all. Even if I  _ did  _ state that I was feeling burnt out, this  _ was my entire life! _

He franctly moved around, quickly grabbing his staff. “I- I was fighting something, I don’t remember what it was.. But, I know it’s coming. I-” he started to look around even more, until his eyes landed on my own. “You’re not safe here.”

Sheesh, that didn’t help.

“That’s kinda…” My hand rose, I started to rub my neck. I was getting more and more worried by the second. “...well..it’s very vague man.”

He walked towards me, putting one of his hands out. “You helped me, I need to help you back.”

I don’t want to trust him, as this was all the sudden. But he seemed so sure that danger was near.

I looked around my home, potions glowing with magic all stood around us. I couldn’t just leave them here, I didn’t have any space considering my travel bag could only carry a few potions for whenever I went around the mountains, fields, and forests for ingredients.

He sighed, “Well.. by the way you’re looking…” he turned around, heading straight to the door. “I wish you the best of luck!” 

I stood there in silence, the bubbling feeling rose up in my stomach. I had the urge to run, the urge to go with him.

I don’t get why this feeling was so strong, maybe because… he was a  _ knight... _ They’re usually never wrong. He was heavily battered too, that’s enough evidence for me that danger was indeed close.

I quickly shoved potions into my travelling bag, I had known that I couldn’t fit many potions into it, but I made sure I grabbed the ‘important ones.’ I had also quickly written up a note that I’ll be closed for… a while. The village was used to these notices going up at random, so I’m sure they wouldn’t be too worried.

Speaking of the village, I would want to warn them as well. But, considering I hadn’t even believed the fellow, I’m not so certain they would believe us. Although, the way he was beat up was most certainly enough evidence. 

I decided to make a warning either way, a post-it on the door, I was planning to go into the town and spread the word as well. I was well-known. They would believe me.. Right?

I hope I was right, as I kept putting more and more items into my bag, I accidentally spilled over a potion. “Oh snap!” I yelled out, but upon closer inspection, I noticed it wasn’t a lethal potion. I sighed in relief, thank goodness.

My bag had been filled. I hope I had the proper equipment. I did travel, but with those adventures I knew where I was going. In this situation, I’m relying heavily on my instincts. Who knows what I’ll encounter. 

But, before I headed out and tried to find that fellow.. I had to deliver some potions that the townspeople had requested. 

It wasn’t much, only a few had requested for potions. But, to be safe I put them in my extra satchel. I could’ve taken this bag as well, but it was too much. Wasn’t it?

Whatever, I had to hurry. That dude was more than likely already his way out of town. I quickly stepped outside, and locked the doors, and put up my notice and the warning. I sighed. This was probably going to be the last time I see this home….   
As I turned around, I looked and I nearly jumped. That fellow was coming back!

He shyly waved to me, “So uh… I couldn’t just leave you behind.”

I laughed, imagine that! We didn’t even know each other yet he was so concerned for me.

“Thanks uh-” I just realized… we never get each other’s names...

His eyebrows went up, “Oh! I never said my name…” he took a bow, “I’m Knight Chadtronics, but uh-” he laughed out loud, it was quite boisterous. “Call me Chad!”

“Oh!” I smiled, my hand going onto my heart. “Well… nice to meet you Chad, I’m known as Yungtown to some of the village, but call me Luke.”

He nodded, “A pleasure to meet you, Luke!” he took another glance at me, “So uh, why do you have…” he pointed at my bag and my satchel. “All of this?”

I knew it was too much, “I wanted to go with you.”

His eyes widened, “Oh really?” I nodded in response, and his smile grew and he jumped up. “Heck yeah! I really wanted you to come along.”

I laughed nervously, was this dude serious? Like... really? “Dude, I barely even know you!”

“Yeah but like-”

He couldn’t continue his sentence, as a nearby explosion was heard. We both jumped up, “What was that?” I asked. As we looked over to where the sound had come from, we noticed smoke rising up. 

“I don’t know...” Chad responded, his voice seemed uncertain, yet he seemed to have some thoughts running through his head. Maybe he actually knew what it was? So, he started to run towards the smoke.

I groaned, I thought we were supposed to run  _ away  _ from danger, not run towards it. “Why are you running towards it?!” I screamed out.

He shrugged, he didn’t know did he... “That’s the knight way!” he gave me the stupidest thumbs up and continued running. 

If I was going to travel with him, I was going to have to get used to this… oh great..

I ran after him, this seemed like a terrible idea, but what’s the worst that could happen?

\----

**[Chad POV]**

My body hurt.. I was used to it, sure, but by god this time it hurt so much.

I didn’t know what the heck I fought, but it seemed as if was destroying everything in its path. The black smoke, with a mix of purple had been engulfing everything. 

Having kept blacking in and out was annoying, one moment I’m in the forest, then next a field. Then instantly in someone’s doorstep, it’s as if my body had been moving on it’s own. 

I only had the strength to knock once, I was relying heavily on my staff to hold my weight, but due to the rocky ground it hadn’t stood still. I kept wobbling and wobbling, trying to stand.

It had been a few seconds, and my method of using my staff as a cane hadn’t worked, so I fell over. The last thing I remember was the door finally opening, the gasp of another human was the last thing I had heard before I completely passed out. 

\----

The taste of mint filled my mouth alongside the salt of the sea. It was too strong. I felt my face cringe, my eyebrows closing in as chills went through my body. Why the heck did I wake up to this?

As moments passed after my eyes were closed shut for the intense taste.  I opened my eyes… well.. This was unfamiliar.

Looking around my surroundings, dozens of potions filled the room, each emitting their own glow, it looked like the inside of a rainbow.

As I kept looking I spotted someone on a couch, they had been sleeping soundly...

It suddenly struck me, of course! I had passed out on their doorstep last night, this fellow must’ve helped me!

I didn’t want to wake them, as they looked peaceful… and it seemed like they needed it judging by their bags underneath their eyes. but I needed to thank them for their generosity. I moved slowly trying to stand back up from the ground. The clanking of my armor had been the only sound in this room. I then poked their face, nearly laughing as they groaned over having to be awoken.

He opened his eyes, well… squinted actually, and took a second to analyze his surrounds. Making direct eye contact with me. His eyes grew wide and he jumped back. Falling from the couch and onto the floor, I winced… that must've hurt.

He put his hand on his forehead, you could see he had been recalling the events from last night. I grinned, this fellow had quite the personality, and he still hadn’t said a word.

I reached my hand out, and he grabbed it. I pulled him up and he stared at me, I guess I would have to start this conversation at this point.

I coughed to the side as I put my hands on my hips. “Uh… thank you so much for helping me.” one of my hands rose it, going behind my neck as I rubbed it. Had I been embarrassed? I looked away, for some reason I hadn’t been able to make eye contact with him.

From the corner of my eye I saw his thumb, he threw a thumbs up, I looked over and saw that he had been glowing, his smile was intoxicating. I smiled back as he stated that it had been no problem helping me out.

His eyes were now suddenly filled with concern, focused on me. “But, if you don’t mind me asking.... What exactly happened to you?”

Flashbacks instantly hit me, I had completely forgotten why I had been hurt. I started to panic, “We need to get out of here!”

He jumped back, clearly not expecting this sort of reaction. I tried to calm down, but my mind started racing.

“What… what do you mean?” his voice was uncertain, but of course it would be. I, a rando who basically barged into his home, started spewing words of danger.

I started to move around, looking for my staff. As I saw the hint of silver I sped-walked my way over to that side. I lifted my staff up, more harshly than I had expected of myself. “I- I was fighting something, I don’t remember what it was.. But, I know it’s coming. I-” I glanced around the room we stood in, until my eyes finally landed on to of his. “You’re not safe here.”

His hands were nervously on top of one another, “That’s kinda…” his hands disconnected as his right hand rose and he started to rub his neck. He was clearly nervous, worried at worst “...well..it’s very vague man.”

My body suddenly moved on it’s own, I went closer to him, my left hand decided to stick out, as if waiting for his own hand to take it. “You helped me, I need to help you back.”

He seemed to be thinking about it, but the way he had been looking around…. He didn’t want to leave.

“Well.. by the way you’re looking…” I hesitantly turned around, heading straight to the door. I didn’t want to leave him behind, but he most certainly didn’t want to come along. “I wish you the best of luck!” I yelled out, and I meant it with all my heart.

I walked, and walked… each step becoming slower and slower. 

My thoughts ran, I wanted to help him so badly. Just by one glance around their home I saw all the wonders they had accomplished. They had so much to live for, I couldn’t just leave him behind!

My feet turned around, alongside with my torso. I won’t leave him behind! I can’t and won’t!

I started to run up the hill, and I saw that someone had come out the door. It was him!

He was carrying quite a lot, the backpack he wore was huge! He had been nailing something on his door, and he stepped back. Putting his hands on his hips.

As he turned around, he made eye contact with me. I waved to him, embarrassed to have seen him again. “So uh… I couldn’t just leave you behind.”

He laughed, I was even more embarrassed!

“Thanks uh-” He stared blankly at me, what was the matter?

It suddenly hit me, we never did introduce ourselves did we? “Oh! I never said my name…” I took a bow, “I’m Knight Chadtronics, but uh-” This time I laughed out loud, “Call me Chad!”

“Oh!” He smiled upon me, his hand going onto his heart. “Well… nice to meet you Chad, I’m known as Yungtown to some of the village, but call me Luke.”

I nodded, “Alright!” now for the next question, “So uh, why do you have…” I pointed at his bag and satchel. “All of this?”

He looked over his bags, glaring at them. “I wanted to go with you.” he blankly stated.

My eyes widened, “Oh really?” He nodded in response. My smile grew and I jumped up. “Heck yeah! I really wanted you to come along.”

He laughed nervously, “Dude, I barely even know you!”

He had a point, but I couldn’t explain the feeling at all. It felt like we were destined to be with one another, my guts telling me to make sure he came with me. But either way, I decided to try to explain it. “Yeah but like-”

I couldn’t continue my sentence, as a nearby explosion was heard. We both jumped up, “What was that?” Luke looked around. We finally spotted where the sound had come from, smoke rising up, it was an unnatural color….

“I don’t know...” I- well that smoke was most certainly part of what I had been attacked by, so I started to run towards the smoke.

As I ran towards it, Luke groaned loudly. “Why are you running towards it?!” he screamed out.

I shrugged, my strong feelings took advantage of me too much. But I had to get to it. “That’s the knight way!” I stupidly responded, and gave him a thumbs up as I continued running. 

Let’s just hope this wasn’t a bad decision. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why is this chapter so short :(

I wasn’t sure how to describe what I’ve seen.

The field, that empty field, had been consumed by some black substance. It looked as if it had been on fire, scorched out of its mind.

But, that smoke.. It hadn’t been any type. It clearly had been magical, the way it had been nearly sentient as it swallowed up anything in its path. The color it shone upon the land, that purple poisoning everything that it had made contact with. 

Chad had been silent this whole time, he kept glaring at the smoke, the puff of clouds rising more and more as the seconds went by. 

“What is that?” I asked, although there’s no reason. I’m certain there would be no one that would have an answer.

“I-” Chad shook his head, “I don't know. But, I remember fighting something. Fighting something that controlled that smoke.”

I felt my eyebrows burrow in, he fought something in  _ that?  _ Was there a beast in it? I shook my head, there’s no time for questions. “We have to warn the village!” I was planning on to either way, but now I had even more evidence to convince them that danger was incoming.

Chad nodded, we backtracked towards my home and towards the village beyond. It had taken us a few minutes, considering the distance was a long-tracked one. Some people had already come out of their homes, wondering what sound was heard. That explosion must’ve have been loud...

I jumped onto the water fountain, and nearly slipping onto it, but this was a way to get people's attention. “We have to evacuate, danger is coming!” I yelled out.

“What do you mean!?” a woman cried out.

I pointed towards the smoke, it seemed to have gotten bigger. “That is consuming everything in its way!”

A scuff was heard from the crowd that had started to form around the fountain that I stood on. “ _ Smoke?  _ Please, what is that going to do?”

I glared as to where that scuff came from, “I had to save this man,” I pointed down to Chad, who bowed down, then kindly waved to the crowd. “From that smoke, do you see those  _ dents? _ He fought bravely, possibly saving us time from that disastrous smoke!”

Everyone glanced at Chad as their eyes moved up and down him, registering that he indeed was quite battered up.  “But- what about our potions?” someone in the crowd asked.

I grabbed my satchel, “If you requested a potion, please come see me. All of the others, evacuate and warn your neighbors. 

Some folks nodded, while others instantly left without a word. I already had a group of people surrounding me. I kindly gave them their potions as they gave me what I had requested in exchange. After a few minutes I had given them all their potions.

Well… I had one left in my satchel.

I looked at the piece of paper sticking onto the potion,  _ Austin Hargrave,  _ I hadn’t quite known who this was, as they recently came into town with their friend. They stated they had been.. travelers.

My frown grew even more, I liked delivering potions, I just  _ despised _ having to deliver to those who had not been part of the village. Like, where would you even find them? A pit? An alleyway, the inn? Who knows!

Chad must’ve noticed my frown, “So.. who’s Austin?” he asked. 

I shrugged, “He just came into town, so I can’t really deliver this.” I shook the potion a little. The colors of black and white inside the glass bottle glowed, the colors swirled around one another, dancing.

“What is it?” Chad asked, coming even closer than before.

“I’m not allowed to say.” I put the potion away, and from the corner of my eye I saw Chad pouting.

“Why not?” he asked, clearly invested in the potion.

I laughed, “That’s for me to know and not you! It’s personal information, people have their own reasons to keep information private over the potions they request.” 

He groaned stepping back as his staff rolled it’s eye. That still creeped me the heck out. He then looked around the now empty central. “So.. what are we going to do?”

Oh.. what were we going to do? I looked over to Chad, “Well, you knew where you were going to go, right?”

I noticed his eyes moving around, he didn’t know where he was going to go. “Uh.. yeah.” he had been lying. Guess I was going to be his guide...

Giving him a thumbs up, I grinned. “Then take me with you.”

“I mean, you already made that clear back up there… but-” he his hands moved up and down, as he tried to search for the right word, he was obviously not going to find it. “I- well-” he sighed, clearly frustrated with himself. “Fine, but don’t get mad if we get lost.” 

I felt my grin grow wider, he most certainly didn’t know where he was going to go. I put my hand up, only one of the fingers remained up as the others went down. “One sec.”

I took off my traveling pack and carefully put it on the ground, I moved a few potions around and finally took out a brown piece of paper. “This-” I revealed it to Chad. “-is a map.” 

Chad huffed, “Who needs a map?!” 

I glared at him, and he sighed in defeat. “Fine, I need one.” he mumbled to himself as he marched on over, standing next to me. 

I chuckled as he stared blankly at the map, “Alright, so where exactly do you need to go? Don’t you need to go back to your king?”

“Yes, of course. I was sent on over to see what had been causing so many problems with the land. I have to report it back.”

My finger moved along the map, “So, two questions. Which kingdom are you from, as well as, how do you not know your way back?”

He laughed, “Alios, and I haven’t been sent this far!” he scratched his face. “We have uh- shortage… so I was one of the few chosen to be sent.” 

My eyes remained focused on the map, where the hell was Alios? “What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well… with the current situation in hand… we have to send thousands of soldiers, knights, anyone really, throughout the land. Either to protect towns, or just to fight whatever is coming their way. But-” he stopped talking mid-way. 

I finally looked up from the map, Chad had been looking down, away from me as his eyes had been closed, “Are… are you okay?” I asked him. 

He perked up, rubbing his face. His eyes opened, clearly misty. But, that didn’t stop him from smiling. He chuckled, “I’m okay!”

I frowned, he clearly wasn’t. “Are you sure?” I asked yet again.

“Yeah!” his smile grew even more, it had been to a point that it had been unsettling. But, he desperately wanted to avoid the topic for now.

I didn’t want to let it slide, but I just met him. Maybe he’ll open up later. For now, I smiled back. “Just now I’m here,  _ alright? _ ”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” he averted his eyes onto the map, “Anyways, do you know where to go?”

I pointed to a place in the northern-eastern part, Alios. “This is where you came from,” I then pointed somewhere in the southern end of this map. “We’re currently here, in Hypa.” 

“We need to cross a few mountains,” My finger moved along the paper “a forest, cross a river and several more forests.”

Chad was nodding, “How long do you think it’ll take us?” he asked.

I shrugged, I wasn’t the best at calculating. “It looks like a long way, but how long did it take you to arrive?”

He glanced around, he started to count his fingers. One.. Two… Three? He stopped, was that right? But three what? “Three...weeks?” he said.

“Three weeks?!” That didn’t seem right, he had to cross quite a lot of obstacles… “Are you sure? Isn’t that a bit short?

He started pondering what he had done the previous few weeks, “I have a bad telling of time…” He looked over to his staff, it’s eye glaring at it’s user. “Do you remember?”

The eye rolled it’s pupil, each time getting progressively faster. Finally it stopped, the sound of Chad’s voice came from it. “1 month… 3 weeks.” It said, the words mushed together. As if picking out certain times Chad had spoken in the past. 

Chad’s eyebrows went up, “So that’s where I got 3 weeks from!” he then looked over to me. “Does that sound right?”

“Yeah…?” I mumbled, I was more or less distracted by the dang eye. But either way I didn’t know if that was correct. I just wanted to get a move on at this point.

He raised his fist, as if he read my mind he started to walk away. “Well! Then let’s get a move on.” 

I squinted my eyes at him, and pointed at the other direction that he faced. “North is that that.”

He quickly turned around, laughing. “I knew that! I was just testing you!” he patted my shoulder as he walked past me, going the right direction.

I chuckled, oh boy… “Sure you were.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you notice any mistakes hmu cause i haven't properly review this in a while ha


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short... @ me so You Can't Type Huh?

We had to avoid the fields, due to the shadowy substance consuming it. Which is why I stated we had to cross a mountain first.

I took out my map, “So, uh, this is Southern Peak.” I looked up, the mountain stood before us, dark clouds surrounded the skies. The last time that I’ve been here it hadn’t been this ominous. 

Chad glanced around, he got closer to me, and whispered into my ear. “....Do we have to pass it?”

I stared at him, what type of question was that?  “..Yeah? Where else are we going to go?”

He groaned, “Let me see your map.” he reached over, taking it out of my hands. The disrespect! He squinted his eyes, he slammed down his staff, then let go. It just stood there, watching it’s surroundings. 

Using both of his hands he turned the map upside down, to its side. All around, really. He sighed in defeat, returning the map to me. He then pulled his staff out from the ground.

I blinked several times, okay then! “This mountain isn’t that bad to traverse, I’ve been here multiple times.” 

We started to walk toward it, due to how many people traveled to this mountain there had been a path implemented. It wasn’t much, but it allowed us to walk peacefully. The rocks hadn’t been a bother to our feet.

“Why do you come here?” Chad asked as he started to use his staff to balance himself.

I thought it was obvious. “Ingredients.” I responded. 

He hummed, and that had been the end of our conversation. 

Time passed by, we kept going until we felt the droplets of rain. The dark clouds had begun to cry upon us. 

We quickly looked around for a cave, anything really, to protect us from the rain. The ground would become harder to traverse with water running down it.

Thankfully this mountain had many entry ways to it’s inside, we found a cave and made our way into it. Guess we’ll spend the rest of the day here.

We sat in silence for a while, I took off my backpack and set it down. Letting my back rest. I laid down onto the cave’s cold ground.. It was relaxing….

Chad stared at the outside, the rain pouring down upon the mountain. At least now Chad’s hair hadn’t been filled with dirt, now I could see his blond. Right now it had looked like pasta, the water dripped down from his head, and his armor gleamed with the rain.

I needed to spark some type of conversation, this silence wasn’t doing it for me. “How’s it like in Alios?” I asked him.

He kept staring at the rain, I saw a smile settle in. “It’s a nice place, the buildings are quite a delight to see. They’re quite ahead of their time.. and there’s incredible people. It’s quite a busy place though, as the king resides there.” He looked over to me, his eyes connecting with mine. “I’m sure you would love it there.” 

I smiled, “I’m sure I would.”

With that, I decided to close my eyes.

\------

Was I dreaming? Or was this real life?

I floated in an empty space, looking around me there had been stars that shone upon me. But with every glance I gave them, they seemed to get farther away. 

Moments passed, and nothing had happened. I kept floating, the void possibly expanding with every passing second. 

A light had appeared in front of me, it was a shade of purple mixed with the color pink. It swung itself around my body, until finally it took the form of a human.

It… he? wore a hat, a flame sticking at the end of his hat. His glasses shined with the chains around his neck. His clothing was of a purple coat, the colors becoming more and more pink as I looked down. A gradient of the dawn of day. The gloves they wore hadn’t been of any material I’ve ever seen, one having a chain locked around it. The pants he wore had been ripped….

He waved frantically at me, and I think I waved back. As he smiled with all his might with that simple gesture.

“Finally! Glad to see I got in contact with someone.” His voice went around the void, echoing around every corner. 

“Who.. are you?” I asked, confusion arose from my voice.

He chuckled, “That’s not important.” he floated towards me, I got a clearer sight of his face, his eyes were brown, but with the slightest hint of purple. “But what’s important is that I need your help.” he poked me.

“What-”

He didn’t let me finish. “I need you to release me from this prison.”

I blinked my eyes multiple times, the heck? The absolute what? Huh? “Uh..” I didn’t know what to say! I’m just here, floating. Literally.

He put his hands on my shoulders, “Please-” his voice quaked with fear. “You’re the only one I could come in contact with, and I need  _ you to find the Jewel imprisoning me in this  _ **_hell.”_ **

His voice started to distort, my head ached with the static filling it up. I felt his hands grab my face, I couldn’t hear him. He… seemed incredibly distraught. He let go, anger now clearly visible. He then created an image with his magic.

The image had been of the jewel he spoke of. It had spikes coming out of it, black overtook the purple trying to break out. “ _ Find this. Destroy It.” he mouthed. I nodded. With that, the void kept coming in closer and  _ **_closer and-_ **

\------

Chad started to shake my body, possibly trying to awaken me.

I opened my eyes, a growl accidentally coming out. “What?”

“Are… are you alright?.” he asked, concern pouring from his eyes. 

I sat up, “Yeah? Why?” I asked.

He glared at me, “You were talking in your sleep, as well as shaking.. Incredibly hard.” he reenacted the shaking, although it had clearly been over exaggerated. “Like that.”

I scoffed, “I don’t think it was  _ that _ bad. But-” I felt a voice in my head tell me, I shouldn’t tell him. Don’t tell him.  _ Don’t.  _ “It was only a dream, like you know how dogs shake in their dreams?”

He cocked his head, “I mean yeah.. But you’re-”

“Oh look, it stopped raining!” I changed the topic, hoping it would work. 

He turned around, “Oh, huh. You’re right.” He got up, and stretched. His armor clanked with his movement.

I sighed, getting up and grabbing my backpack…

Now.. to find that jewel.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh oh dumbass alert

“Don’t worry Jeff, I _know_ he was here!” A man with the craziest hair, like a mane of a lion spoke to his friend, both had seemed… as if they were in distress.

His friend, Jeff, sighed. “Austin, _please._ We’ve been looking for _hours!_ In these _ruins!”_ he put his hands up, waving them frantically around the ruins that surrounded them.

Austin scoffed, “How do you know the time, _huh?_ It’s probably only been like...10 minutes! Also, since you basically came with me for the request, why don’t _you_ lead the way?!” He crossed his arms, and looked away from his friend.

Jeff groaned, “I was half-asleep! I didn’t know where we were. Also, the sun has _moved_ quite a distance! That means _time_ has _gone by!”_ He pointed upwards, the sun glaring upon them.

“Oh yeah?!” Austin looked up, blinded by the sun. “That means nothing! Cause look-” smoke started to cover the sun, “Those clouds are covering it!”

Jeff instantly looked up as well, "Wait a minute- That's smoke, not clouds! Besides, my weather prediction stated that _nothing_ was going to cover the sun up!!"

"Well, your predictions are wrong cause you _suck."_ Austin replied.

Jeff groaned, "Yeah yeah, when have I ever been wrong? Huh? Tell me."

Austin put his hands up, currently balls of fist. With that, both middle fingers went up. "Two times baby!"

Jeff rolled his eyes, "I wish I could murder you."

"You wish-" his sentence was caught off as a violent cough overtook his voice, he fell to the ground. His hands were grabbing onto his shirt that was underneath his robe. Trying ever so desperately to hang onto his chest.

"Austin?" Jeff frantically ran over to his partner, "Austin? Austin?!' he yelled out his partner's name yet again.

Austin kept himself on the ground, desperately trying to breath. Jeff tried not to panic, he looked up yet again… this smoke wasn't normal. That glow _wasn't normal._ Nothing about this was  _normal!_

He grabbed an item from his bag, an orb that seemed to be made of glass. He sat it down, and a force-field surrounded them.

With that, the violent cough from his buddy stopped. The smoke continued to go, washing before them as if under the tide.

Jeff helped Austin regain his breath, "Thank you." a silent voice came from Austin.

Jeff sighed, "Don't worry dude, that's what I'm here for." he chuckled. "I really thought you were dying on me though…"

Austin took a deep breath and sat down, "Me too…" he closed his eyes, trying to regulate his breathing. "Awh, man." he opened it up. That smoke was _not_ something he wanted to see again. "I'm gonna keep my eyes closed, okay Jeff? Tell me when that smoke leaves."

Jeff hummed, "Will do."

Moments passed, and Austin spoke up. “Where did you get that orb from?” he asked his partner, trying to point at the orb as his eyes were still closed.

Jeff gave an audible shrug, “I don’t know, you know how it is with us.. We just find things.”

Austin gave a finger gun to the side of Jeff, and shook it, “Ya got me there!”. Jeff glared at his friend, and soon laughed. What an absolute fool.

As Jeff looked up, he couldn’t help but stare at the smoke. It was… fascinating. Sure, it had almost seemed to kill his friend. But, the way it moved reminded him of a royal. It swirled around the force-field with _grace_.

Moments passed, they continued to sit in silence. Finally the smoke disappeared, “It’s gone.” Jeff spoke up, with that Austin opened his eyes. Staring directly at the sun, “OW!” he yelled, closing his eyes yet again.

Jeff rolled his eyes as he chuckled, he grabbed the orb from the ground, and the force-field disappeared. Putting it back into his bag he looked around, he had been too busy staring at the smoke that he hadn’t noticed how much it affected the area around them...

“Oh my God.”

Jeff stood still as the forest that had been beside them was gone, the trees were scorched, no leaves left in sight. All that remained where the trunks, as well as some branches, but as the wind picked up they fell to the ground.

Austin kept rubbing his eyes, “What are you gaping about?” he then finally opened them yet again, blinking several times. Staying still for a second, he spoke up. “Okay, is it just me or is everything dead?”

Jeff shook his head, “Everything's… dead.” Jeff looked around. “That smoke _burned_ everything…” he shook his head.

“What do you mean?” Austin stood next to Jeff.

“As I stared at that _smoke._ It.. it had a glow that I’ve never seen before, and the way it moved. It was sentient.” he then pointed to his surroundings. “Also, the forest was there when we got here. It wouldn’t just get destroyed in a few minutes!”

Austin put his hand on his chin, “So what you’re saying is that, someone put a smoke cover over a fire spell?”

Jeff nodded, “Exactly! It _looks_ like smoke, which is why no one would be alarmed. Because, you, for example. Thought it was _just smoke!_ When in reality, it’s fire. It’s destructive.”

Austin nodded and nodded until his eyes widened. “Wait-” he looked around. “If that’s the case.. Wouldn’t that potion-maker’s house… be gone?”

Jeff stood in silence. “Oh my God, you’re right!” he put his hands on top of his head. “We’ve probably passed by it-” he then cut his sentence short. “They’re probably _dead!”_

Austin put his hands up, “Woah, okay there buddy. They’re a potion-maker, I’m _sure_ they saw it coming!”

“How does that make sense?” Jeff asked his friend.

In which Austin replied with a shrug of his own. “Just a thought.”

Jeff shook his head, “ _Whatever,_ let’s just go. I don’t like this place.”

“Why? Because the forest died?” Austin asked as he started to walk, passing Jeff. Then started to run, a muffled chuckle could be heard as he kept running.

“Oh no, because it’s hard to breathe- OF COURSE BECAUSE THE FOREST DIED IN A SECONDS NOTICE!” Jeff yelled out as he started to chase down Austin.

As they kept running, Austin stopped for a split second, and looked to the right side. Jeff stopped as well, and stared at what Austin was looking at. Together they stared at a burnt house...

“That’s…” they slowly made their way over. Pieces of wood were all over the ground, Jeff looked over to his right side, down below he noticed a village. Well… they could’ve stayed there last night, huh? But.. it was on fire. Since from this distance he only saw grey smoke, _real smoke._ Some of their houses had been on fire.

Austin kept walking to the home, and he saw a piece of wood that had some type of writing. Barely visible with the black outline of the flames devouring the wood, but.. One word was shown out.

**_‘Danger.’_ **

He looked up to the burnout house, the once well crafted mushroom shaped house was now roasted. The front door had been burned off, with that he made his way into the home.

It was dark in here, hard to see and difficult to breathe. But it didn’t stop him as he kept looking around. The last time he was here was yesterday, obliviously, but the change from that day to today was drastic. Nothing shone light, everything was burnt, black and grey was everywhere. The couch, he saw, was still standing. But brunt as a crisp. He looked around to the walls, some of the shelves had been cleared off. But those that hadn't been had burnt glass, a few on the ground as well. One caught his attention, one had fallen next to the cauldron.. It was probably nothing.. But he noticed a small glint from the bottle….

“Hey! Get out of there! The roof could collapse at any second!”

Austin groaned, “But I wanna explore!” he extended his final word as he yelled back, he grabbed the bottle. Just to save himself from the curiosity it would spark in the future. He sneakily put it into his bag, hoping Jeff wouldn’t see it.

He made his way back to Jeff, “What did you see in there?” Jeff asked.

Austin shrugged, “I mean.. everything’s burned?” he stated.

“... okay. I believe that.” Jeff looked around, “So uh… where do we go?”

Austin thought for a second, “Wanna go to Alios and sell people useless items?”

Jeff’s eyes widened “That’s so far away though!” he whined, they had already been travelling for a while… and to go _that_ far? Ugh….

“Yeah, but people there are rich.” Austin stated, which made Jeff perk up.

“You make a point! Let’s go!” Jeff raised his fist in excitement as he pulled out a compass from his bag, and soon they were headed northeast..

Or.. so they thought.

They encountered that the field that allowed faster travel was taken over by that _smoke,_ and considering their previous encounter with it.. They decided to go another route.

Jeff took out the map from his holder on his belt, as they looked at it, they noticed that the best route currently had been Southern Peak.

They both groaned out loud, they both _hated_ going through mountains. Like.. what’s the use of them? They’re just big rocks!

But… considering that one of them nearly died to that magic consuming the lands, it was a safer bet to travel through the mountain lying before them rather than risking their lives by crossing the devoured field.

So they made their way to Southern Peak.

“This place looks _scary.”_ Austin commented as he looked upon the revolving dark clouds circling them.

Jeff nodded, “Yeah. But, it won’t be _too_ bad.” he took one step forward and soon the rain started to pour, no warning via droplets at all. It just came pouring down! It felt as if a river fell upon them.

Austin glared at Jeff, “You jinxed it.” he said, deadpan as they started to become soaked.

Jeff slightly growled, “Yeah yeah.” he started to walk, waving Austin to come over. “Let’s just get shelter inside these caves.”

They scurried to the cave, sheltering themselves from the pouring rain.

As they were about to settle down, they heard a distant noise, a bell of some sort… came from deep within the cave.

“Did.. did you hear that?” Austin commented as he looked down to the darkness engulfing the cave.

Jeff nodded, “I did hear it..” he started to stare down into the cave as well.

Both kept staring, slowly getting up.. “Wanna explore the cave?” Austin spoke up.

“I-” Jeff looked back to the rain, the cold breeze coming from it was not ideal. But, going down to a deep cave was also _not ideal._ But… they didn’t have anything to do until the rain stopped. He sighed in defeat. “I guess so.”

Austin gave a silent ‘ _yes’_ as they both got up to their feet. Austin grabbed out a torch from his bag and casted a mini-fire spell onto it, a spark of ember it seems. With that, the torch was lit. He grabbed it with his right hand and showed it to Jeff. “Ta-da!” he said.

Jeff clapped a little, “Well done!” he pointed at Austin’s hands. “Your fire spells are coming greatly, dude.”

Austin chuckled, “I know right? Who knew finding this-” he touched an orb that laid upon his neck, the orb was orange with the swirl of a yellow, it was hung by a light blue thread that went around his neck. “-would give me fire abilities?”

Jeff sighed, “All I got were water abilities….” he silently said. He looked down onto his own orb that he had found, it had shone a green color. Dark green bits popped in at times, making it seem like the moon. But, having water abilities? That made no sense in his opinion, why _green_ if it gave him water skills?

He shook his head, he was getting too deep into his thoughts. He looked back up, and noticed that Austin had been staring at him, his eyebrows had been burrowed in.

“Uh-” Austin’s eyes widen as he looked away from Jeff, waving his torch in front of himself. “Let’s keep going.”

“Yeah..”

A moment of silence went for a while, none of them knew how to spark a conversation.

But, it didn’t really matter. As they had been looking around the cave they were in. When exploring, you’re in your own thoughts. Thinking of what you see, and what you find. It’s your own adventure, really.

Moments passed, and Jeff realized it had.. been _too_ silent.

“Hey, Austin” he spoke up, but… the response he expected didn’t show up.

“Uh…” he turned around, and noticed his buddy hadn’t been there. The torch still remained, but his friend? Gone. “Austin?” he ran to the other side of the cave, and looked around, grabbing the torch from the ground he started to wave it around. “Austin?!” his voice started to become more frantic.

**_“Where are you?!”_ **


	5. Chapter 5

I kept walking down the passageway of the cave, my torch still in my hand. It felt… non-existent. Maybe I had been holding it for too long? I dismissed the feeling, it was just my hand being weird.. Probably.

As I looked around the rocky walls had started to glow  _ blue….   _ I shrugged it off, some caves are commonly known to have electric currents in them. It’s said that they glow blue, and even lift up stones! I perked up, if I had been in one of those types of caves I would be so happy!

I turned around, expecting to see Jeff to tell him how happy I was. But… he wasn’t there.

I felt my stomach turn, oh no. No _ nono _ **_nono_ ** , did I separate from him? Oh no. I- I can’t be on my own. Oh no…. I started to run back, frantic but focused on trying to spot him. But soon the world started to turn. My vision- It was going dark. Oh no. My breath started to escape from me as I could no longer feel my body. My body felt non-existent at this point. I cursed myself, why oh  _ why  _ did I have to explore so far from him? I was such a fool, I know I go off on my own but he always stops before. I- I-

Suddenly the blue walls exploded to white light, my vision had been restored, but only due to the blinding light. I blinked multiple times, trying to restore my breath as I could finally feel my legs again, and soon my torso and above. I stood there for a few minutes, trying to regain myself from what had just happened.

I then shook my head,  _ ‘Come on, Austin. You can find him again, don’t even sweat it!’  _ I told myself, although I was fairly uncertain about it, it would still be nice to believe in that statement. I love having Jeff around me, he’s such a good friend.  

I jumped up and down a couple of times, to shake some feelings off. Okay. Let’s go.

The walls had now shone a white light, it was glowing to a certain path. Well.. at least I think so.. It was constantly glowing into one direction. I figured.. Why not follow it?

I followed the light, crystals upon crystals stuck out of the walls. My… this place was filled with them! A goldmine! I looked around in amazement, oh man! Jeff is not going to believe this  _ at all!  _ I felt my smile grow wider, oh boy..

I kept walking down, the light slowly fading as the walls and floors turned to full crystal. They seemed… as if they had been carved into this matter. My amusement kept growing by every second.

It wasn’t until I reached some sort of chamber. The light started to shine down upon a jewel..

The jewel was black, it had purple slowly trying to overtake the black, but.. spikes had also been coming out of it. I slowly made my way over, as the crystal bridge that went to this jewel had been over a dark pit. I gulped, if this was how I died I would’ve been very pissed.

It wasn’t helping that my body felt like it was going to die as I made my way across this darned bridge. 

I heavily sighed, and speed-walked through this bridge. As I got closer and closer to the edge, I noticed that some of the platforms ahead had been  _ floating.  _ Blue static escaped from them as they hovered before me. I gulped, oh man… this was going to be hard.

I gave it my best shot, carefully jumping to each platform, then taking a second or so to regain my thoughts. After a few more tries I was finally on the main platform where the jewel resides. 

This jewel.. Upon closer examination I noticed that..  it was beautiful. I gave my torch to my left hand, as I let my right hand grab the jewel. I started to pull.. But- It seemed stuck and also.. the spikes hurt...

I groaned, all of that work for it to be  _ stuck and that it hurts?!  _

I felt my right hand start a flame, it was getting…. really hot. sooner or later an ember sparked up. I yelped as I accidentally threw the ember onto the jewel as I shook my hand.

“No!” I yelled out, but- The jewel then popped off the podium it stood in. It then fell to the ground, and just laid there. I sighed in relief, that.. That was a close one. I reached down and grabbed it by the parts where there had been no spikes. 

“Nice.” I said to myself as I put it into my bag, with that… the world turned to white.

That white flash made me blink multiple times, ugh. That hurt.

After regaining my sight, I looked around me. Huh. No more white light, no more blue light… no more dark pit that would most likely kill me if given the chance. The only light I saw was the light from the outside and that was it… wait-

Where’s my torch?! I had it with me-

I looked to the ground, nothing there. I looked up. Nothing there either, I looked to the left side, nothing- Wait. Why is that flame coming towards me?

It kept getting closer and closer, I closed my eyes and I jumped up as I screeched. “AAAA!!”

With my eyes closed, all I heard was heavy sigh of relief. I opened them back up, and saw a rather tired Jeff panting heavily before my eyes.

Oh man, was he searching for me? “Dude are you-” suddenly he dropped the torch and embraced me, his arms around me. I… I hugged him back. I missed him,  _ deeply.  _

“Where were you?” he muffled into my shirt, his voice had given off a hint of distress… oh no..

I should show him the jewel.. Maybe that’ll cheer him up. I let go.. Maybe I should explain where I was first.. “Okay, so- the walls were  _ covered  _ with crystals dude!” my fists were now next to my face, expressing excitement alongside with me.

Jeff’s head tilted to the side, “Did you get any?” he asked.

I shook my head, disbelief shot through Jeff’s face. I then grabbed the jewel from my bag, “But look what I found!” I showed him the spiky-jewel.

Jeff walked closer, and looked at it. “Woah dude… I’ve never seen this before…”

“Me neither! It’s so cool right?!” 

Jeff nodded, “But- where  _ exactly _ did you go? Because one second you were behind me.. And the next you were gone.” 

I pondered that, “I… I actually don’t know… cause one moment I was in a room covered with crystals and the next.. I’m here…” had there been some magic involved in that? I wondered… 

“Maybe it’s one of those ~ _ secret~  _ jewels that mages hide!” Jeff said excitedly as he kept looking at the jewel in my hand. 

“Maybe…” I then too stared at the Jewel.. He could be right. But I wasn’t well acquaintanced with those mages, nor their history. I sighed. “Whatever, at least this jewels cool!” 

Jeff nodded, “Anyways, I feel like we’ve spent enough time here.. Can we go?” he looked around the cave, eyeballing every single rock in his way.

I nodded, “Yeah. Let’s go,  _ please.”  _ the last thing I wanted was to stay in here. Sure, I just found this cool jewel. But, I got separated from Jeff. No thank you!

We made our way back to where we had entered this cave in the first place. The pouring water had finally died down, and soon we were back outside.

The sun greeted us as we looked around the puddles of water. The dark clouds had finally wandered off, and we could finally go up the mountain in  _ peace.  _

So, we did. Although we despise going through mountains, it had seemed like this one had been traversed through a lot… a path had already begun to form. We both sighed, rocks won’t hurt us now. 

As we reached a high point we looked around, the land was… well.. I don’t know what to say. One part you see an outstanding forest, while the next you see a land that has been put up aflame. Out in the distance you spot even more mountains, but the thing that always catches my eye now had been the smoke.

I hated it. Everytime I looked at it I feel like I’m dying again, I closed my eyes and took deep breaths. I then turned my whole body back to the way I had been facing. I opened my eyes and Jeff stood there. I felt relaxed with him here….

We took our moment of breather and kept traversing the mountain. I gulped, I really hoped we were done going through this mountain by tomorrow’s sun-down. I  _ didn’t  _ want to be here.

It was cool getting this Jewel. But.. it gave me bad vibes. I just.. It seemed.. Magical. Which.. would make sense considering that Jeff hadn’t noticed where I had gone and that I was suddenly in another room in a split second. 

Jeff looked back at me, “I think we should settle down here for tonight.” we stopped at a part of the mountain that had been fairly flat. No slopes or steeps here.

I nodded, “That’s fine by me, Jeff.” 

We sat down, our backs next to the mountain. We looked upon the sky, it was currently dusk. We had been staring at the East.. so we couldn’t quite see the sunset. But.. it was still beautiful. The stars trying to arrive as the sun started to leave… amazing. 

I closed my eyes, this day was tiring.

As much as I wanted to stargaze, my eyelids feel heavy. With that, I mumbled a ‘Goodnight.’ to Jeff as I soon fell asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for this cave i got heavy inspiration from the chargestone cave in black/white AND the whole finding the black/white orb in the victini movie. would've put the breaking bridges but i uh... forgot that happened in the movie. envisioned the path tho.


	6. Chapter 6

I hadn’t even noticed that Austin was asleep….. Did he even say goodnight to me? I… sure hope he did.

He was… so quick to sleep tonight. It was, so weird. Sure, every now and then we had been so tired that we needed sleep  _ instantly. _ But, was his journey on getting that spiked jewel that energy-draining? 

I sighed, I wanted to continue our stargazing from the previous nights. We had been having so much fun. Since we didn’t know many of the constellations, we began making our own. 

The sun was starting to set, and the sky soon turned from orange to dark blue, the color it always became at night. The stars started to outshine everything, expect the moon who watched over us with it’s faint light that tried to light up the night’s ground.

Stars upon stars kept growing in numbers as every minute passed. More and more came to gather into the night’s sky daily reunion.. I soon started to recall some of our constellations that we had made up as. I chuckled as I remembered we had created two. One had been of me, and the other was of Austin. But, Austin was the one who had created both of the constellations. I didn’t mind, but I did find it hilarious that he made his constellation outstanding whilst mine looked like a plain ol’ stick figure.

I kept moving my finger across the sky, I recalled the King constellation. That had been a real one, this constellation applied to any king. It was the biggest of the constellation, figures. But what I found most fascinating was that all of the stars surrounding the King seem to point to that constellation. They were perfectly aligned…

But, tonight the stars had been scattered. Like broken glass, which… was ever so unusual. The stars  **never** moved. They cannot move, was it my eyes playing tricks on me? I blinked multiple times… nope, the stars were still scattered. 

I must just be tired, running through that cave trying to find Austin was  _ exhausting. _ I hated this day, but yet I closed my eyes, now recalling everything. The feeling of dread that I felt for the majority of the day came back to me.

~~

_ My voice echoed through the cave, ‘Where are you?!’ kept bouncing around the walls. I stood there with hope, hoping Austin would respond to me. But alas, all I heard was the dripping water that echoed with every little drop. _

_ I kept standing there and waiting with Austin’s torch in my hand. It’s flame had been strong, trying it’s best to light up everything it surrounded. I continued to stare at the torch, this was literally Austin’s flame. His own power that he had been working so hard to figure out, I felt a slight pride arise in my heart, but soon a pang of sadness struck it. He wasn’t here. He couldn’t get to see my pride, my happiness for him. _

_ I frowned as I looked around my surroundings once more, less frantically than when I had first picked up this torch. There was no way something snatched Austin up, the walls had been solid, no holes to fit any human had been in my view. _

_ The only hope I had was to search around the cave. I had no use standing here, my legs started to move on their own, my mind was focused on looking out for my friend, my partner, my companion. _

_ I hadn’t noticed, but the orb that was on my chest started to glow. I was so focused on the light of the fire that I didn’t notice the light green glow that came from underneath my nose.  _

_ I kept moving around the cave, but, with every second that passed I had noticed that I could no longer hear the droplets from the outside, nor from the cave. What was happening? I looked around and all I saw was that the water from around me had started to form into a figure… a.. A human figure? My eyes widened as the water formed the craziness and spike-full hair of Austin’s. Soon it also formed his clothing, it… it looked like him expect with no emotion. Just.. just water. It.. it wasn’t him. But it… why? Why?  _ **_Why was the water doing this?!_ ** _ I closed my eyes, but it hadn’t helped. Now I was aware of the noise surrounding me. _

_ The water-like Austin was coming closer to me, it’s wet-footsteps splashed with every movement it made. I kept my eyes closed until a wet-substance touched my shoulder. My eyes came into view with that of this water-creature. Although transparent it tired it’s best to create the form of Austin’s eyes. I took multiple steps back, every moment I made left me shaking. It kept staring at me, no emotion came from it. I… was I this desperate to find him  _ **_that the water had to do this_ ** _?! _

_ “GO AWAY!” I yelled out, tears started to fill my eyes as the water-creature started to wobble. It was starting to lose it’s form. But it kept trying to make physical contact with me. _

_ I swung the torch, careful to not let the fire go out by the water. It then stood back, and finally it gave me an actual emotion. It’s eyes had widened, the disbelief expressed had shocked me. It… it was hurt that I swung my torch. I then heard it’s voice, although gnarly, it could easily be appointed to be these words. _

_ “I’m sorry, Jeff.”  _

_ Finally, it broke down. The face of this creature melted, as well as it’s figure. All that remained as a puddle. _

_ I had finally noticed the light green glow that was radiating from the orb hanging on my chest, but the light had been deflating. This.. this fucking orb was out of it’s mind.  _

_ I continued to stare at the puddle in silence. Fucking hell, I didn’t want to even try to move. That.. that was awful. My ears were now ringing, the only words invading my thoughts was “I’m sorry.” I don’t know if it had been of my own thoughts, or of those words of the water-like Austin. But I… I kept thinking and thinking about it. _

_ Moments passed and I groaned, I had to get a move on! The ringing finally stopped and I could finally recollect my own thoughts. ‘Move, please. Just move.’ I told my body. And It did. I kept going around the cave until I heard a noise from a-far. I turned around and noticed that a human-like figure stood near. I felt my heart drop, this better not be another water-bitch. _

_ It wasn’t another water-bitch. This time it was him. It was him.  _ **_It was him!_ **

_ I practically flew to my friend, my partner, my companion. He screeched and jumped back as I ran towards him. God, how I missed his stupid-fucking scream. I felt a heavy sigh come out from me, oh how relieved I was. _

_ Austin stared at me, his face expressed worry but I didn’t care. All I could do was hug him. _

_ ~~ _

My eyes opened wide. I instantly glanced at Austin, who was still knocked out cold, leaning his back against the wall of the mountain his head hung down. I felt my eyebrows burrow in, why was I so concerned? So worried?

My thoughts continued to expand and so many questions had been appearing. Where the hell did he even teleport to? Why? And that fucking jewel he showed me, what was up with that?

Thankfully, my mind now focused on something else. My eyes were now focused on Austin’s bag. The faint glow of purple started to pop out. I quietly grabbed his bag, sliding it to me. I opened it up and now I stared at all of the junk that Austin kept.

My… this was messy. 

I moved items around, fangs, small fragments of stones, a broken glass bottle, actual treasure. Until I reached the purple glow. It was that darned jewel. I groaned, of course the thing that distracts me from my thoughts is the thing invading my mind.

I grabbed it and took it out of the bag. I had to hold it in a strange way, avoiding the spikes overtaking the main base of the jewel. It was most strange how the purple and black  _ actually moved  _ in the jewel. It was most certainly filled with magic.

_ “Heyyyy.”  _

I jolted up, the hell? Where did that come from? I looked all around me, was there someone near? Who the  _ hell said that?! _

With nothing in sight, I have come to the conclusion that I was just going crazy at this point. I perhaps needed sleep…

I looked back at the jewel, the glow of purple was now gone. Maybe the magic went to sleep as well? Wait… that was a stupid statement… magic never sleeps.

I stared and stared at this stupid jewel, ‘You made  _ him  _ tired.’ I thought to myself, but I felt stupid thinking that. I was complaining in my head  _ about this jewel?  _ I groaned and shook my head.

But upon shaking my head, I spotted a light from the corner of my eye. It was a glow that came from a-far. I slowly crawled closer to the edge of our cliff, and spotted another human. He seemed to have been talking to someone else… but what caught my attention was that the light had been coming from something.. metallic. It… I don’t even know what it was but it was most fascinating. I then started to observe the one who held that strange object. His armor.. Oh my! Looking at how battered up it was, I feared for my life… he must’ve been an  _ amazing  _ battler. Perhaps fought in many battles.

I had mentioned that he had been talking to someone, although I couldn’t properly see them, they seemed rather familiar… his brown vest mixed with the maroon that then transitioned into a gradient warm-color popped out to me. Why was he so familiar again?

“Oh! It’s the potion guy!”

I surprised myself with my own voice, that was who it was? I had been half asleep when I talked to that guy... Both of them stood still and looked at my way- Oh yeah, I roared that sentence out to the world, didn’t I?….

I then heard shuffling behind me, oh god- please tell me Austin didn’t wake up-

I turned around, and all I heard was a silent yet strong ‘Shut up….’ from him, as he continued to enjoy his sleep. I sighed in relief, of course he would still be asleep… I  _ know  _ he can sleep through  _ anything. _

As I turned back to where the two dudes were, they were getting closer to where we were. Well… guess I had to greet them now.

I stood up, my knees creaking as my bones seemed to have popped. Man, my body felt  _ awful _ . I stretched my arms, the muscles expanding with every moment that I made. Hopefully that would make me feel a bit better. 

As I continued to stretch, the dudes came into my view. What I hadn’t seen the first time was an  _ eye  _ coming from the light of the metallic object. My oh my, this knight had to have been a higher rank to sustain such an outstanding object…

The knight waved at me, while the potion-maker of before had been grabbing something from his bag. I looked back, and Austin was still asleep. Perhaps I should awaken him so we could trade.. I didn’t know what Austin offered to this potion-maker….

I didn’t want to awaken him, he seemed like he absolutely needed the rest. But, how else would we trade for the potion? Perhaps this jewel I withheld upon my hand? But this was Austin’s discovery!

I made my way over to Austin to awaken him, oh man… the feeling my stomach seemed to overpower my body.  _ Don’t do it, he needs his rest!  _ It screamed out to me, but the feelings in my head countered back.  _ Well, he’s the one who did the request!  _ It yelled back.

I seemed to have taken a while, as the two men were now standing next to me. I jumped up, “Oh!” I screeched as they too jumped back. I put my hand on my chest, “Sorry about that…” I apologized to them both.

The taller of the two, the potion-maker, spoke “Don't worry about it! Anyways, uh, If I recall correctly, your friend over there asked for this potion.” he held out the black-white potion towards me.

I sighed, “Thank you, but... “ I looked over to Austin yet again, “I don’t recall what our part of the trade had been.” I sheepishly said as I declined his potion. “I want to awaken my friend so he could tell me what the offering was, but I fear that I’ll ruin his entire night.” 

The knight looked to the potion-maker, “We could stay the night?” he requested.

I wanted to speak out,  _ Oh, you don’t have to!  _ I desperately wanted to state, but for some reason my voice had gone out. Wha- Why? I hadn’t done  _ that  _ much talking today.

The Potion-Maker had been staring at my hand, the one that contained the black-purple spiked jewel. He was out of it until the knight waved his own infront on his. Trying to get his attention. The maker blinked, smiling at his friend. “Yeah- uh.. If it’s alright with him.”

Why was he looking at my hand? I looked then, and there had been a glow of purple due to the jewel. I then heard a “ _ Sure! _ ” I suppose I said that...… although that wasn’t my voice. Well, it was but  _ I  _ didn’t want to say that. There was something here that was forcing me to say yes. I looked up from my hand, what the  _ fuck  _ was up with me?

They both stared at me as I remained silent about my own confusion of my own voice. I then looked back at my hand that contained the jewel. Oh, hohohoho it  _ has to be this bastard of a rock controlling me? Huh?  _

“Uh… are you alright there?” The knight’s voice snipped it’s way through my thoughts.

I felt my face burn up, “O-oh…” here I was, yet again complaining to a  _ jewel.  _ “Yeah. Just thinking?” I said.

Only the knight replied, the potion-maker’s eyes made it’s way back to my hand and he continued to stare at the jewel. He.. his eyes were filled with determination, did.. Did he want it?

The knight yet again asked the alright question, but this time to his friend. His friend blinked multiple times, “Oh yeah, man. I’m aight.” he responded.

The blonde frowned, “You two are so weird.” he said as the eyeball from the light bounced up and down… 

I glared at him, he said that as  _ that eye was responding to him? _ I shook my head, that’s none of my business. For now I should get the jewel out of anyone’s view. It  _ had  _ to have some sort of effect to make that potion-maker  _ stare  _ at it. “Why.. why don’t you two just sit down?” I recommended. 

“Oh! Uh, sure.” The potion-maker responded. “Sorry for staring at you.. Uh.. what’s your name?” 

I went back to sitting next to Austin. “My name’s Jeff, and this is Austin.” I said as I pointed accordingly.

He nodded, “I knew of Austin’s name, since he had to give it to me for the potion to deliver it to him. But never knew yours.” he chuckled. “You seemed tired when you came to my home.” he stated as he took off his bag and laid it across the ground. He then sat down next to me.

God, was I really that tired? “Yeah… I just wanted to go to sleep.” As I talked, I grabbed Austin’s bag and stuck the jewel in there. Fuck that jewel, I didn’t want it out. I then slid the bag back to where it once was, next to Austin. Hopefully he didn’t notice that I grabbed his bag. 

I did feel heavy eyes on me, and I was right.  _ This damn potion-maker was still staring at me.  _ “Are you… okay,  **_sir?_ ** ” I said, with more power than intended.

He blinked, nervously-chuckling. “Yeah, yeah. Also, name’s Luke. Didn’t say that before huh?” He gave me a big smile, hm, okay then.

“-And I’m Chad!” the knight spoke up, wanting to be included in some way. He laid his spear… staff? The thing with the eye, across the ground as well. His armour was even more of a disaster the more up close you had been. God, he must be so strong….

“What are you doing out in the mountains anyways?” Luke spoke up, as laid down onto the rocky ground.

I chuckled, “Oh- we were searching for you, but then couldn’t find you. So we wanted to make our way to somewhere else, but some strange smoke blocking our way..” My eyes glanced at Austin for a second, then back to Luke. “It was scary the first time around, so we had to go through the mountains.”

“Are.. are you okay?” Luke asked.

Nodding my head he seemed to be relieved. “It’s that, when I encountered Chad, he was absolutely  _ destroyed  _ due to that smoke. Or so he tells me.” Luke said.

We both now looked at Chad, who also seemed to have been knocked out cold. It was literally 30 seconds before he met the wall. Guess he needed his sleep as well.

I heard a soft chuckle, I kept watching Chad as Luke spoke.. “I thought he was  _ dead.”  _ I heard his sigh, a heavy oh so  _ heavy _ one. “I’m glad he  _ wasn’t. _ ”

“...Yeah.” I thought back to that encounter that me and Austin had. I really did think that Austin was dying on me. Which, honestly is a scary thought. He has been alongside me for a while, our hardships of trying to make a living kept us together, we had been through  _ everything  _ together. Maybe.. Maybe that’s why the water formed into him, maybe that’s why I was so concerned about him.. 

“Well!” Luke’s voice snapped me back to the world, “We should probably sleep, too, huh Jeff?” He smirked. “You probably wanna sleep, right?” he seemed so  _ eager  _ for sleep. “Right?” he asked again.

I stared at him as I cautiously laid down, my back sliding down from the wall to the ground. “I.. I suppose so?”

“Then, goodnight man.” He winked as he turned around, facing the other direction, away from everyone. I.. I guess I was sleeping now.

My eyes stared at the stars for one final moment before I slept. The last constellation I saw before I had closed my eyes was of the mage, which could also correlate to that of the wizard.

But this certain constellation hadn’t applied to that of a typical magical user, if I recall correctly from a book we had stolen from some library, this constellation applied to the user of black magic.

The Dark Users.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> H i'm so sorry i hadn't updated in a while...... anyways.... we back boys.. hopefully :)

**Author's Note:**

> y'all wanna see how the outfits look like since i don't wanna describe them?  
> eonsofart.tumblr.com/post/185461782543/ultraguardians-my-brain-hey-remember-that-au


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